Passionate Love and Personality Traits of College Students

Abstract

Thinking about and exploring love by college students is not a very uncommon scenario in the present times. The trend of relationships being a necessity in colleges is very much prevalent nowadays. Most college students who are susceptible to relationships go through the phenomena of passionate love. This study tries to investigate the relationship between passionate love and Big Five personality traits that may help us to predict how an individual may experience and perceive passionate love. The PLS and TIPI inventory was used to measure the passionate love and personality of college students. The passionate love scale was composed of three components which are cognitive, emotional, and behavioural. The Big Five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. The questionnaire was administered to 120 college students who were selected using the convenience sampling technique. The collected data was analysed using a correlational research technique. The results of this study revealed that various components of passionate love were found to be significantly associated with Big Five personality traits. Individuals who possess high levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience displayed comparatively higher levels of the cognitive component of passionate love than the other personality traits. While the emotional component showed a significant negative correlation with emotional stability whereas the behavioural component had a significant positive correlation with agreeableness and conscientiousness. The limitations and suggestions for further research regarding passionate love and limitations were discussed.